BNS Section 338: Forgery of Valuable Security, Will, etc

Definition of BNS Section 338

Section 338 of the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita (BNS), 2023 states:

“Whoever forges a document which purports to be a valuable security or a will, or an authority to adopt a son, or which purports to give authority to any person to make or transfer any valuable security, or to receive the principal, interest or dividends thereon, or to receive or deliver any money, movable property, or valuable security, or any document purporting to be an acquittance or receipt acknowledging the payment of money, or an acquittance or receipt for the delivery of any movable property or valuable security, shall be punished with imprisonment for life, or with imprisonment of either description for a term which may extend to ten years, and shall also be liable to fine.”

Explanation and Illustration of BNS Section 338

This section is applicable to any person within the sovereign borders of India, whether citizen, resident or otherwise. It deals with the offence of forging valuable documents. Let us break down the section to get a better understanding of it.

• Offence

  This section provides for forgery of high value documents. For the purposes of this section, a valuable document is:
  
  a valuable security or
  a will, or
  an authorisation to adopt a child, or
  a document which authorises a person to make or transfer any valuable shares and securities, or
  a document which authorises a person to receive the principal, interest or dividends on shares and securities, or
  a document which authorises a person to receive or deliver any money, movable property, or valuable security, or
  any document that serves as an acquittance or receipt acknowledging the payment of money, or
  any document that serves as an acquittance or receipt for the delivery of any movable property or valuable security.
  
  Any person found guilty of forging any of the documents listed above shall be considered an offender under the provisions of this section.

• Punishment

  Any person found guilty of forging valuable documents shall be punished with imprisonment for life, or with imprisonment for a term which may extend to ten years, and shall also be liable to fine.
  
  The above actions may not be an offence under this section if:
  
  The offender is forced or coerced into performing the offence
  The offender is a minor or not of sane mind.
  
  However, there may be other sections under the BNS under which the above actions can be prosecuted and while they may be disqualified under the provisions of this section, such actions will still be punishable under the provisions of those respective sections of the BNS.
  
  Illustration
  
  A, an accountant with access to valuable documents of his client Z, forges the share certificates of various security investments owned by Z in order to secure a loan by presenting the forged certificates as a collateral. A is an offender under the provisions of Section 338.

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